Lit Up Perfectly

The way a shaft of morning sun comes through the glass doors of the two way fireplace and lights up the plant on the living room table always amazes me.

Somehow it finds the plant and only the plant. Nothing else in the room is illuminated, just the green leaves all lit up and shining. 

On these November mornings it happens just as I am having coffee in the red recliner, around 7:15 a.m. The timing, the light, the specific way just that one thing shines, is just striking.

It's a plastic Swedish ivy that I've had for decades. I packed it and moved it here. It fits perfectly into the white resin cylinder container that Hope made us a few years ago. 

And it sits perfectly on the glass table in a ray of morning sun that lights it up like it's alive. Wow.

Some Color

There's some real color in the bush clematis by the garage door this year. A bright golden yellow.

We're still only flirting with freezing temperatures at night. Every once in a while -- like this morning -- it gets down to 28 - 30 degrees. A freeze, but a light one and not for too long. I've unhooked the hoses but haven't brought them in.

Then the mornings go back up to high 30s and into the 40s for several days. 

Afternoons are pleasant.

But the vine on the back fence browned up long ago, and now the crabapple and the redbud are mostly bare. The aspens and the cottonwood leaves are about 3/4 down too. 

The Japanese maple and the plumbagos are deep scarlet red, mostly smothered by fallen cottonwood leaves, but still visible. The Texas betony and veronicas behind, and the columbines behind those, stay green.

The Wood's rose, just planted this year, is still a tall awkward shape. It's turning golden, and that's a nice complement to the reds nearby.

And here's some dramatic color captured last night at dinner time.

Autumn is well underway.

Salvia Greggii Radio Red

I got more Radio Red salvias at Newman's. 

I went in looking for a mum for the urn in front, but it's too late in the season. But they had a table full of Radio Red greggii salvias, and I've had that on my list to get more of next year.

It's my favorite red salvia, redder than Furman's Red, bigger, glossier leaves than the Salvia greggii (Hot Lips I think) I got at Lowe's and more compact than Windwalker Red (which is actually S. darcyi x microphylla, not a greggii variety)

So I got several and plopped one in its nursery pot in the urn.

I have two that are in the kitchen courtyard. None of the pots I overwintered survived, but the two in the ground did.

I want two more to put in pots at the deck -- the Windwalker Red really got too big and lanky in a pot there.

And one to plant in the circle garden where the annual Strawberry Fields gomphrena was -- that never grew into much of anything.

It's too late to plant one in the circle garden, so all four that I just got will go in the garage when hard cold hits.

They are hardy to zone 7 and we are supposed to be 7 now, although I think we're right at the edge if not solidly in a colder winter zone.

But we'll see if these four new Radio Reds make it.

Mixed Flowers in the Center

My plan is to overwinter the David Verity cuphea so I can plant it out, mature and full, in the white bowl next spring. 

I may rethink that.

I might like a mix of sunny perennials and annuals all together, creating a real focal point of color and form for the center of the circle.

If done right all the plants would fill the bowl in a way the cuphea just didn't.

I rarely do mixed flower containers unless I get some already planted up from the nursery. But I'd try 

• Profusion zinnias
• A division of the blue carpet sedum I have
• Vivid blue lobelia
• Petunias and pansies of course 

. . . just a random mix of things.

I liked the cuphea well enough, but the Vermillionaire plant was a simple look.

I like David Verity better, and if I can winter it and keep it full looking, that's still an option for the bowl. 

If not, a colorful profusion of sunny flowers would be better and I'd put David Verity back in the blue container behind the deck. It did well there.

(I've since taken the Vermillionaire out. It looked fine after one morning this week that hit 26 degrees, but a couple days after that it was clear it was gone. The flowers were still bright, but the foliage had shriveled.)

26 Degrees

The first freeze of the season. It was 26 degrees overnight. 

But everything survived nicely, even the annual lobelia and the Profusion zinnias. The Vermillionaire cuphea is fine. I did bring the David Verity cuphea into the house after cutting it down as I get ready for winter.

The day dawned cold but still, and the hot sun quickly made things pleasant. A lovely fresh feeling day with quiet sunshine and cool air.

There are no more freezing nights for the next 10 days. Just warm days of sunshine in the 50s and 60s with little wind and overnight temps above 32.

I had unhooked the hoses but did not drain them or bring them into the garage. Now I'll have to hook them back up to do chores and water some things over the next weeks.

Cutting Back

I don't think I can bring the David Verity cuphea into the house to winter over as I planned unless I cut it way back. It's just too big and leggy. I tried it in the bathroom and in front of the sliders where winter sun would be good for it. But it's too much.

I did find an article that says potted cuphea can be brought inside, but to cut it back first. So I did, although I hated to sacrifice all the pretty flowers it was still putting out.

The only flirtation with overnight temperatures of 25° - 29° is one night next week, and then it rebounds to above freezing nights and beautiful warm days well into early November!

Will that one overnight freeze be enough to zap the cuphea? 

Assuming it might, I cut it down to just a few leaves at the base of the stems and put it next to to my laundry hamper in my bedroom.

It had gotten so leggy because I watered it too much. 

I did the same with the potted Windwalker Red salvia and the Black Adder agastache. Their leaves got so shriveled in the summer sun if I did not water, but the extra moisture made them tall and spindly.

The salvia was actually cut back in summer and it regrew quickly into tall stalks with vivid blooms at the tips.

I need to figure out how to keep these potted plants happy without over watering. 

The red salvia may go in the ground next spring, in a spot where there is no emitter. It needs water to flower well, and maybe I can keep it hose watered but leave it drier in between waterings.

Despite the continued lovely weather, I did cut back the tickseed that had gotten raggy looking, to get ready to put it in the garage. 

Still full and green and even putting out a few flowers, but it was time. What a performer it was all summer long, constantly in full bloom. 

In spring I will divide it and use the divisions in other locations. Maybe in pots, maybe I'll put one in the ground.

The Blue Ice amsonias are a nice yellow now in the corner by the guest room window. 

They are a cool, lemony yellow, bright and eye catching. I can't wait for the new ones I just planted to fill out around the circle garden and produce this elegant foliage and color in fall. It will take a good 3 to 4 years, though.

Some trees have lost leaves, the Virginia creeper is brown and kaput, but it's still so warm and beautiful.

Simple Switch

I switched two garden decor things and I like it better. For years, ever since we moved in, I have had the Relax sign up against the wall between the two big windows on the east side.  My metal peacock, more recent, has been in a couple locations in the back yard.

I simply switched the sign and the peacock.

The peacock adds a little more presence than the sign in the dining room window garden, and it was a bit lost in the back yard. 

I had it in the open on the deck at first, but tucked it into the potting bench curve where a blank spot was. 

The relax sign is just enough taller and looks better rising above the stuff along the empty wall in the potting bench curve.

The peacock is fuller and more visible in the dining room window garden, and I can see it from inside the house.

Both of these empty spots needed something and I was struggling to think what to plant that would fit the spaces and be tall enough to see. 

But I don't want more plants, I'm trying to edit down. And neither of these empty places has an emitter right there. 

So rather than plants, I need hardscape or decor items to tuck into empty places, without getting too cutesy or over decorated. 

These two metal sculpture things, switched, seem to work.

Raydon's Favorite

Blustery, windy and cloudy all day today, with periods of spitting rain and some harder rain. 

It's the remnants of a hurricane off the west coast of Mexico that are now straggling up from the southwest. Not a lot of rain for us, but chilly, unsettled, agitated weather in northern New Mexico.

This will go on for a few days. Still no frost forecast.

Raydon's Favorite aromatic aster is finally, after many years, looking full and flowery. More magenta pink than I remembered from when I grew it in CT. It had been a deeper purple for me there I thought.

So I checked old photos, and boy did it grow for me back east. I remember now how huge it was and how I had to cut it back and tame it.

It was a soft blue purple there and it formed big round mounds, so lush.

The difference is the climate and the moisture of course. But why the difference in color? Soil chemical and composition?

Anyway, my tidy little aster, blooming mostly at the top and tucked in by the sumacs along the garage wall is nice.

Not what I remembered or grew before, but nice.